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August is a relatively tall, fair-skinned, still quite well-toned[12] old man with blackish eyes and roughly shoulder-length, wavy, silvery white hair, with the majority of his bangs swept leftward. He has a short mustache, and a lengthy, mildly thin beard that reaches down to his upper torso,[3] shoots up towards the mouth in large spikes, and links to his main hair via sideburns.[13] Additionally, he has thick eyebrows, a pronounced nose bridge, and high cheekbones. August's many facial wrinkles evidence his advanced age, most prominently those on his forehead and below his lower eyelids, and his laugh lines.[3][8] He also has a dark tattoo consisting of a thick dot surrounded by two circles on the back of his left hand, and two straight lines going from the circles' bottom end down the front of his forearm.[14]

As for clothing, August sports a long, light-colored robe consisting of two major pieces: a long garment that reaches past his knees, with a tattered bottom edge and intricately designed linings on the ends of its sleeves, including a line of dark lozenges, and a shorter, more billowing garment above it, over only his chest area. The longer garb is kept tied together with a thin light girdle made of a seemingly rope-like material. An externally and internally dark-colored cape is additionally above both parts of the robe, jutting out in sharp, more elongated lozenge-shaped spikes around the back of his head, also having a tattered bottom edge, having the Alvarez Empire's symbol emblazoned on its back, and being kept in its place by a long, less wide cloth tied around it and August's neck, which in turn is held fast by a spherical dark clip. Finally, a dark ring on his right middle finger and plain dark high boots complete the outfit.[8]

Befitting his oldness, August's demeanor is among the more cool and stern of Zeref's Shields, rarely expressing strong emotions; he quickly settled down after seeing God Serena being slain up close.[15] Wise and often speaking cryptic, Brandish μ, herself a Shield, also labeled him the wisest of Zeref's Shields.[16] Additionally, despite his status as one of the world's strongest, he's also aware of and accepts his limits, saying to another Shield that they, together, still had no chance of defeating Acnologia himself[17] (whereas the strongest female of the Spriggan 12, Irene Belserion, sanguinely dared confronting the Dragon King all by her lonesome).[18]

August being gentle in listening to Brandish

Whereas, according to Jacob Lessio, August is truly "bad news", lacking the barest sense of humor;[19] he's very gentle by word of Brandish, reportedly the easiest one to talk things out with among the Spriggan 12,[20] a statement later proven well-founded.[21] In fact, August's mellow bearing is such that, regarding enemies, he told God Serena to desist from killing, of all people, the helpless four then-strongest of Ishgar's Wizard Saints,[22] and wanted to grant Mirajane Strauss a quick demise by shooting through her heart;[23] regarding comrades, he cares much for and is protective at least of fellow Shields, saying that it's a terrible thing to lose a comrade after having saved Ajeel Ramal (possibly his life) from Laxus Dreyar,[24] asking if Jacob is still alive after the latter had gone on ahead to fight Fairy Tail, and saying that the dead God Serena remains inside his heart.[25] He also rightfully deduced that Brandish stabbing him wasn't voluntary, consequently putting her asleep rather than hurting her in return.[26] August has even shown his distaste for barbaric cruelty set upon enemies, as he was disgusted witnessing Irene torture Mirajane.[27] Even after defeating Crime Sorcière, rather than killing them, he chose to let them live.[28]

August accuses Brandish of betraying the emperor

Besides, the elder's loyalty to Zeref (whom he reverently addresses as "Your Majesty", unlike Ajeel's informal behavior, but more casual than Invel's interaction with Zeref[8]) is proven to be near inflexible, considering himself and his colleagues Zeref's pawns only,[29] and likewise reminding Brandish of their dedication of their minds, bodies, and very souls to their emperor, while at first brushing aside Brandish's inability to find meaning in Alvarez's war against Ishgar as her betrayal as an enemy whom he ought to eliminate[30] (in spite of knowing Brandish from her childhood days).[31] And yet, he acknowledges the need for even Zeref to have the infinite Magic Power of Fairy Heart in order to kill Acnologia.[17]

August scolds Irene for her actions

Additionally, Brandish managed to initially convince him into first listening to what Fairy Tail had to say to him rather than immediately proceeding with the plan of obtaining Fairy Heart, by imploring him to understand the senselessness and malevolence of the bloodshed that was their war with Ishgar, and that Fairy Tail wasn't evil (although the fact that seeing Natsu Dragneel seemingly reminded him of something might have also played into that).[32] Then, though, when Mest Gryder used Brandish to attempt to kill him, he instantly decided on utterly annihilating the Fairy Tail members confronting him.[13] As the general of the Spriggan 12, August takes his position seriously, as he reprimanded Irene for ignoring their orders to meet up with their emperor,[33] and gave an intense glare at Larcade Dragneel, for always skipping meetings.[34] August believes that light and darkness do not defy the concept of good and evil, and he believes that true justice in the world lies between love.[35]

August first appears in Vistarion's palace, approaching Zeref, as well as Dimaria Yesta, Ajeel, and Invel, commenting on the fact that Zeref seems happier than before, implying that it's because he found his answer to Ragnarok. Zeref replies that, in Ishgar, they actually call it the Dragon King Festival. At that moment, Yajeel appears, bringing in Makarov Dreyar to have an audience with Zeref, and August and his fellow Spriggan 12 members leave upon Zeref's request.[36]

Sometime later, August is seen approaching Ajeel, having protected the Sand Mage with a Magic barrier from a lightning blast of Laxus Dreyar. Ajeel confronts him about his actions, while August states that it's painful to lose a comrade. Ajeel asks if August really thinks that he'd die from something like that, noting that the old Mage has gone senile.[37] Then, at a following meeting of the Spriggan 12, August bows his head and tells Zeref that they are all prepared for the end; the war against Ishgar. After Zeref states his wish for mankind to perish, August responds that they are but his pawns.[29] Eventually, August takes off towards the west by airship to arrive at Fiore's eastern border with two other Shields, God Serena and Jacob Lessio, along with a force a million foot soldiers strong; along they way they've flown over Bosco and annihilated the country and all its guilds between the three of them. Upon leaving their ships, they encounter Draculos Hyberion, Wolfheim, Warrod Sequen, and Jura Neekis waiting for them, with Warrod remarking on the Magic King's status.[10]

August stops God Serena

Alongside Jacob, August remains completely uninvolved in the ensuing fight between God Serena and his former comrades, instead watching God Serena easily defeating them all by himself.[38] Upon observing God Serena's opponents launching a counterattack and leaving him cornered, August stops Jacob from stepping in, citing the rarity of getting to see God Serena's true power. The duo then witness God Serena utilize his various types of Dragon Slayer Magic and leave his foes in critical condition, after which August stops God Serena from killing them, commenting on the latter being the "Hybrid Theory": a man blessed by the Dragon Gods. August having said that, the three Shields make for Fairy Tail, but are halted by the sudden appearance of none other than Acnologia, who strikes down only God Serena, leaving August utterly bewildered.[39] As an angry Jacob then readies to attack in return, a recomposed August halts him, pointing out the Dragon King's strength, and reminding Jacob about their primary objective: procuring Fairy Heart for their Emperor to defeat Acnologia.[17]

Later, it's revealed that Jacob has gone ahead of August to make his share of the work lighter, while August deduced that they were being located by Fairy Tail's Magic Radar and hid both of their positions from it.[40] After Jacob's eventual defeat at Fairy Tail's headquarters, when the captive Shield Brandish μ warns Fairy Tail of the threat August poses, the old wizard is briefly seen walking through an empty, barren landscape.[41]

August notices Brandish's group

His walk is halted when he sees Brandish, as well as Mest Gryder, Lucy Heartfilia, and Natsu Dragneel riding a massive, flying Happy towards him, and the elder sternly gazes up at them.[42] When his opposition has gotten off Happy, August asks Brandish about her intentions, with Brandish returning that she's come to negotiate with him. August then quickly asks if Jacob has been killed, and Brandish replies that he's been defeated at the hands of Natsu and Lucy, and that he isn't dead, but a prisoner of war. Brandish proceeds to ask where God Serena is, with the Magic King stating that God Serena is right there with him, and he then points out that Brandish doesn't seem to have come under torture, asking if he's to interpret the woman's actions as betrayal. Brandish states that this couldn't be further from the truth, that she'll always be loyal to Alvarez, as she's just can't find meaning in the war. August retorts that those very words are in direct betrayal of his majesty's will, reminds Brandish that the members of the Spriggan 12 have dedicated their very beings to his majesty, and then states that if, in spite of that, Brandish still can't comprehend why she must fight for Zeref's cause, then she's nothing more than an enemy whom he shall eliminate.[43]

August attacked by a brainwashed Brandish

However, August continues to listen as Brandish's weighs in her viewpoint of the war being nothing but bloodshed, then trying to attempt to implant the thought into her mind that His Majesty is to decide how the war ends, before being quickly cut off, as she urges him to think for himself. Brandish reveals to him that she finds the Fairy Tail Guild to be far from evil; August's eyes sway away to glare at the three Mages behind Brandish, seemingly recognizing Natsu. He then agrees to hear out Fairy Tail, not wanting to make a fool out of Brandish. However, he's promptly stabbed by Brandish with an enlarged dagger, her memories having been altered by Mest to make her do so. Angered by the turn of events, August unleashes a transformation, but not before expressing his anger for the enemy's method of resolution to the war.[13]

The now-livid August immediately puts the mentally altered Brandish to sleep before directing his rage towards Fairy Tail in the form of an immense, heat-based explosion.[26]

Brandish shrinks August's wound

Shortly thereafter, Irene Belserion casts Universe One, and once the Magic's bright light has disappeared, August and Brandish are found sitting together underneath some tree. Brandish shrinks August's wound to negligible size and proceeds to ask what he just did, to which the Magic King replies that this wasn't his doing. He explains that this was Irene's Compression Magic, that Irene has enchanted the entire nation with it, and that she has changed its very shape. The result of this is that the people of Fiore were rearranged atop the newly modified geography at random. Brandish asks August what Irene could possible gain from this, but August notes that these were just the side effects of her spell, and the true goal was to rearrange two particular people: to bring his Majesty as close to Fairy Heart as possible and send Acnologia somewhere far in the distance.[44]

August pierces Mirajane's heart

Later, August, still accompanied by Brandish, regroups with Irene and scolds her for her intentions to torture Mirajane Strauss, who's tied up to a boulder. August further points out Irene using Universe One without a permission, but the female Mage argues that she had no other option as per Acnologia's presence. Afterwards, August tells her that Spriggan 12 are to gather at Zeref's location and even though Irene protests, eventually, she decides to give into the demands of August, intending to, however, finish off Mirajane first. August forestalls her though, quickly launching a piercing beam at Mirajane, which tears a hole through her body. He states that he pierced Mirajane's heart, and asks Irene if that'll suffice, to which Irene responds with comments about August's kindness.[45]

August is later seen gathered with all the other members of the Spriggan 12 alongside Zeref, where he gives Larcade Dragneel a dirty look, which he enjoys doing so according Larcade, with Invel claiming the reason to be Larcade skipping out on the meetings.[46] Together with the rest of the armies, August stands in front of the guild as a part of Zeref's perfect strategy to keep their enemies' base occupied.[47]

August takes on Crime Sorcière

Shortly after Irene enhances the Alvarez Soldiers, August is seen looking at the bright light generated by Makarov Dreyar's Fairy Law.[48] In the aftermath of Makarov's attack, August begins combat with several members of Crime Sorcière, led by Jellal Fernandes. Despite being pitted against multiple opponents of considerable strength at once, the old Mage is able to overwhelm his foes by casting the same Magic that they know against them.[49] Shortly thereafter, August soundly defeats Crime Sorcière, and as Larcade's Pleasure runs rampant across the battlefield, August condemns the youth for using his Magic.[50]

August steps on Jellal's head as he tries to get up, and asks the man why he stopped being a follower of Zeref and put himself down an opposing path; after hearing that it was because he found a light, August looks down on Jellal's ideals, explaining that Zeref had a son who was born with a powerful light, but never experienced love, and settled on a path void of either light or darkness after wavering between them. As he walks away, August says to Jellal that good and evil don't exist in light and darkness, and that if justice were to exist, it would be in love.[51] August then muses that if Larcade could possibly be defeated, it could only be by his mother.[52]

Magical Intuition: Lauded as the supreme "Magic King" both past and present, August is rumored to have effortless control over every single element of Magic there is, even possessing more types of Magic than Zeref himself.[9][10]

Sleep Magic (眠りの魔法 Nemuri no Mahō): August can use this Magic, as he was able to easily put Brandish to sleep in a moment with a meager wave of his hand.[53]

August unleashes his Magic

Fire Magic (火の魔法 Hi no Mahō): August can summon forth a gargantuan amount of heat[54] energy around his being that surges up to incalculable heights at extreme speeds in form of a pillar, such that it can be felt and clearly seen kilometers away, tearing away and, as hinted by the Magic King himself, dissolving into oblivion everything so unfortunate as to lie within the immediate range of effect.[55] Even Natsu (as an extremely strong and competent Fire Dragon Slayer) wasn't able to fully negate this attack.[54]

Bullet Magic: A Magic that August uses to produce ballistic projectiles of Magical energy out of his hands to launch at foes.[56]

Piercing Bullet: August merely points his index finger at a target to fire from it a thin, fast-moving, beam-like projectile of high piercing power, piercing a human's torso and a large boulder behind it without the projectile visibly slowing down.[57]

Sound Magic: August has the magical ability to hear a person's very soul, allowing him to tell what they are going to do next, and allows him to hear their thoughts. With it, August is able to foresee all of the attacks performed against him and react accordingly, countering them without effort.[58]

Slowing Magic: August has the ability to use this time-affecting Magic, changing the way its targets perceive time. This kind of Magic makes August formidable at melee and short range, allowing him to evade most attacks performed against him.[59]

Reflector (屈折(リフレクター)Rifurekutā): Reflector give August the ability to reflect, distort and twist all manner of objects, save for living things, such as human beings. August is extremely adept at this Magic, easily reflecting Macbeth's Spiral Pain.[60]

Magical Barrier: August can conjure up extremely potent barriers; he used one of unknown shape and size to completely shield fellow Shield of Spriggan Ajeel Ramal from a massive electric explosion of the Wizard Saint-tier Laxus Dreyar (which dispersed Ajeel's Sands of Death), which left the Desert King astonished when witnessed; August even implied that he had expected Ajeel to die from the blast, although Ajeel dismissed this as a foolish thought.[61]

Magical Camouflage: August can camouflage his and others' Magical presence from Magic Radar detection.[62]

August's battle form

Dark Transformation: August can assume an unknown transformation. His skins darkens to red and his hair flares upwards wildly, his main hair, beard, and eyebrows more so than his mustache. On his forehead emerges a thick, golden circle, flanked by three thin, gold-colored lines to its left and right, which diverge slightly before going down under his eyebrows to reach his eyes' top edges, and from their bottom go further down to his jawline, over his neck, and diagonally across his pectorals so as to reach his arms, then stretching across the front of both his arms, presumably connecting with the above-mentioned, normally dark-colored tattoo at least on his left arm.[63][64]

Enhanced Endurance: Although quite elderly, August is able to endure a lot of pain and lethal damage, not seeming the least bit disadvantaged upon being pierced through the abdomen by what equaled a regular broadsword in width.[65] Sometime later, however, Brandish shrunk the cut to a trivial size for him and indicated that this had been somewhat necessary.[64]

Immense Magic Power: August possesses immensely terrifying reserves and strength in Magic Power, being crowned the strongest man[7] and strongest individual[66][67] among the Spriggan 12 as the group's leader,[6] placing comparable with Irene Belserion, the strongest woman of the twelve.[68] His power goes so far beyond what the other ten have normally at their disposal that even Makarov Dreyar, one of the highly esteemed Ten Wizard Saints and Fairy Tail's Guild Master, grew quite visibly distraught at the mere memory of some of August's capabilities in Magic at work.[9] Even fellow Shields Jacob Lessio and Brandish hold the elder's might in very high regard, with the latter one stating that, of all Mages in existence, only Irene has a shot at defeating him.[69][70]Mest Gryder, Lucy Heartfilia, and even Natsu Dragneel were awed by his immense Magical presence, with Mest pointing out how, despite knowing of August's power level, he didn't expect him to be that powerful,[71] and that his power is in fact in a completely different dimension from even Brandish's (hers already being exceptionally overwhelming).[72] One of Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages, Mirajane Strauss, hailed his Magic Power, alongside Irene's, as defying common sense, while sweating from simply being in their presence.[73]Mavis Vermilion, too, Fairy Tail's First Guild Master herself, was scared of August's mere presence.[74] He was even able to defeat the majority of Crime Sorcière, (including former Wizard Saint Jellal Fernandes) by himself, without so much as a scratch to his own person, and also pressuring them by countering them with their own magic.[75][76]

Staff: August carries a staff akin to a wand in his right hand, surpassing its owner's height, with a long and thin, gnarled wooden haft and a dark, round gemstone fixed upon its tip, partly overgrown by the wood. He uses it as a walking staff,[8] but it's unknown what specific purpose the item holds in regards to the elder's Magic usage, if any.